Officials monitor wilderness fire in Montana
CHOTEAU, Mont. – A wildfire started by lightning in the Bob Marshall Wilderness Area has grown to about 3,100 acres, a forest ranger said late Friday afternoon.
“We expected the perimeter to grow, and based on the amount of smoke that it’s producing, it’s continuing to grow,” said Mike Munoz, district ranger for the U.S. Forest Service’s Rocky Mountain District in Choteau.
Officials in Lewis and Clark National Forest decided to observe the wilderness fire but won’t actively intervene yet, he said.
“We’re pretty much preparing for a long-term event,” Munoz said.
The fire area saw temperatures in the 90s, low relative humidity and 25-mph winds on Friday.
“That’s been making the fire pretty active,” said Wendy Maples, a fire information officer with the Forest Service.
The fire in the North Fork Sun River Drainage, near Sun River Pass, was reported late Wednesday afternoon, Munoz said.
Firefighting crews are unable to reach the blaze because of limited landing areas and dense timber, he said. And spraying retardants or pouring water on the blaze from the air appears to be useless at this time, he said.
Maples added that forest officials are developing a management plan focused on keeping the fire within the wilderness area.
“What we do will depend on what the fire does and where it is and what it’s threatening,” Maples said. “We’re trying to stress to people that we’re not just sitting back and watching. We are actively monitoring this fire.”
Maples said they suspect the fire was caused by a lightning strike during a June 28 storm and smoldered until hot, dry conditions, coupled with the typical high winds on the Rocky Mountain Front caused it to blow up.
The fire is burning on the Lewis and Clark National Forest and part of the Flathead National Forest. The only structures threatened, Munoz said, are two Forest Service cabins: the Wrong Creek Cabin in the north fork of the Sun River; and the Gooseberry Cabin in the Middle Fork Flathead River drainage.
Officials said conditions are ripe for the Fool Creek fire to continue growing over the next few days.